Northern Sea

Biodata

Geography

• Waterways: The sea contains extensive water veins, cold currents, warm currents, and complicated flows. Lan Shuang initially hoped to use these currents to escape Dragon Clan pursuit 2 184.
• Climate: Parts of the Northern Sea have year-round ice. Its cold waters support specialized aquatic tribes, coldwater fish, and cold-natured medicinal herbs 180 184.
• Deep seabed: Undersea mountain ranges surround the depths where Lu Chen’s enormous Black Tortoise body rests 1 2.
• Western reaches: Remote western waters contain the Extreme Yin Trench and the former site of the fraudulent Mysterious Abyss Divine Court 136 146.

Northern Sea and Northern Darkness Sea

• Northern Sea is the external sea of the Primordial World containing the Abyss Sea Eye 1 73.
• Northern Darkness Sea is a separate inland sea created inside Abyss’s inner realm. Its waters contain Abyss Power, circulate inward, and are stabilized by the Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Pearl 26 85.
• The one-million-li radius recorded after Abyss’s expansion describes its inner realm, not the Northern Sea 26.

Notable Locations

History

Dragon Clan Rule

During the Three-Clan Hegemony, the Dragon Clan ruled the Four Seas and required Water Clans to obey its commands. In the Northern Sea, the Blackwater Dragon Army suppressed weaker clans, seized spirit mines, and escorted aquatic beings into slavery 5 13.

The Mystic Clam Tribe fled after being ordered to supply ten thousand Blackwater Spirit Pearls every thousand years. The Sea Spirit Clan likewise sought refuge after the destruction of Cold Moon Island, entering the feared Abyss region while pursued by Ao Zheng 2 5.

Rise of Abyss

Lu Chen’s protection of the Sea Spirit Clan established an alternative to submission. He declared that Abyss would not participate in the Three-Clan Hegemony, although the Blackwater Dragon King interpreted his seclusion and protection of refugees as signs of hidden ambition 2 3.

The confrontation culminated in the defeat of the Blackwater Dragon Army at Dragon-Suppressing Pass. Lu Chen’s Dharma Body suppressed the Blackwater Dragon King without revealing his true body. Despite attempts to conceal the defeat, news spread throughout the Northern Sea, encouraging small clans to seek Abyss’s protection 15 16 17.

Three hundred years after the Three Lives Gate opened, refugee convoys crossed the black tide daily. Waters within a million li of the Abyss Sea Eye, once avoided by ordinary Water Clan members, had become a busy approach to the refuge 55.

After the Dragon-Han Cataclysm

The collapse of the Dragon Clan’s former order left Abyss among the north’s leading powers. Most weaker Northern Sea races followed its rules, but Lu Chen did not claim regional sovereignty. Ao Lie also rejected a proposal to become Northern Sea Dragon King and use the region as a foundation for rebuilding Dragon Clan power 66 76.

Di Jun and Taiyi repeatedly offered Lu Chen northern authority, culminating in a formal offer of the title Northern Sea Emperor. He refused, maintaining Abyss’s independence from the Demon Court 76 79 99 100.

Destruction of the False Divine Court

Daoist Xuan Cang exploited Abyss’s reputation to collect tribute, seize resources, and conscript Northern Sea cultivators. His followers massacred the White Fish Tribe after it resisted 136.

Lu Chen killed Xuan Cang, destroyed the false court, and had stolen resources returned to their original clans. The Book of Cause and Effect distinguished perpetrators from those forced into service. His declaration that Abyss neither collected tribute nor conscripted soldiers reassured previously doubtful tribes and made the Northern Sea noticeably more peaceful 137 138.

Inhabitants and Resources

• Aquatic peoples: Recorded inhabitants include the Sea Spirit Clan, Mystic Clam Tribe, Cold Sand Clan, Ice-Scaled Tribe, Cold Whale Tribe, Black-Shelled Turtle Tribe, Cold Tide Tribe, and White Fish Tribe 2 5 16 136 184.
• Dragon Clan: Blackwater Dragon Palace was a branch of the Northern Sea Dragon Tribe rather than the Ancestral Dragon’s main lineage 27.
• Independent cultivators: Ancient cultivators such as Daoist Xuan Cang and Ancestor Youquan lived in the region outside Abyss 137 146.
• Spiritual resources: Northern Sea clans cultivated spirit pearls, medicinal herbs, and other spiritual materials; spirit mines and water veins were also targets of Dragon Clan seizure 5 13 184.
• Departed souls: Deaths from predation, tribal conflict, exploration, and passing Great Demons produced wandering souls. Some dispersed, while others followed currents into places such as the Extreme Yin Trench 146.

Three Lives Post Station Network

The post stations extended Abyss’s refuge routes across the Northern Sea without being established as a kingdom. Lu Chen explicitly rejected turning the network into one 139 180.

Rules and Administration

• Neutral grounds: Witch and Demon forces could settle their conflicts outside the stations, but station boundaries were governed by Abyss’s rules rather than racial allegiance 173.
• Ceasefire enforcement: Both Witch Clan and Demon Clan groups obeyed the standardized boundary steles 180.
• Soul protections: Abyss declared that it would not detain, judge, or redirect departed souls, and would punish anyone who seized them in its name 170.
• Waterway management: Ao Lie coordinated the Northern Sea’s water veins, the Ninefold Netherworld Cold Spring, and station formations. The Formation Office supplied specialized water-vein formation platforms 199.
• Popular name: Refugees called the waterways the Mysterious Abyss Tribulation-Avoidance Route, a name Lu Chen allowed to remain in use 199.

Warming and the Ten Suns

Initial Changes

The first small sign was a drop of water falling onto normally permanent ice. Later reports recorded melting near the Thirty-Fourth, Sixteenth, Twenty-Seventh, and Forty-First Post Stations 180 184.

Ao Lie’s investigation found that the warming affected the entire Northern Sea. Undersea fire veins and the Abyss Sea Eye remained stable; the heat instead came from increasingly active solar true fire above 184.

Ecological Effects and Preparations

• Coldwater fish migrated from the shallows into deeper waters 184.
• The Ice-Scaled Tribe moved its outlying medicinal herb fields into the deep sea 184.
• The Cold Tide Tribe migrated tens of thousands of li north 184.
• Abyss inspected station formations, relocated cold-natured herbs, prepared vulnerable tribes to move, and stockpiled supplies 184.
• As additional suns appeared, clouds burned away and the glare forced Water Clan members to retreat underwater. Solar True Fire later caused the sea’s surface to steam 186 190.

Refuge During the Disaster

After Lu Chen injured the Seventh Golden Crow Prince, Di Jun stopped the princes from retaliating and ordered them to treat Mysterious Abyss as a senior. All ten turned aside before entering the Northern Sea 190 191.

A subsequent Demon Court decree allowed small Demon Clan tribes to seek Northern Sea refuge during the Ten Suns disaster without immediately being charged with desertion. Queues outside the Fifth Post Station stretched dozens of li and included aquatic peoples, winged races, and Witch-affiliated tribes 204.

Within a few decades, temporary refuge seekers increased severalfold. Long-term settlement inside Abyss did not rise at the same rate, keeping pressure on its inner realm lower than expected 204.